1. Technical Field
The present application relates to a method and apparatus for configuring a communication channel prior to the transmission of a signal along the channel such that a desired noise characteristic of the channel is achieved.
2. Related Technology
Within the human body a great number of electrical signals are being constantly transmitted over an equally great number of communication channels in the form of signals being passed, for example, between the brain and the various muscles of the body. For example, to move ones arm requires a number of signals to be sent from the brain to the various muscles via various neurological channels. As in most communication channels, those within the body introduce a certain amount of noise to the transmitted signal. It has been found that the noise characteristics of the neurological channels within the human body result in the introduced noise being “proportional noise” (sometimes referred to as multiplicative noise or scalar noise), by which it is meant that the standard deviation of the noise is proportional to the signal strength. This is markedly different to conventional engineered communications systems in which either a) the noise is assumed to be additive and independent of the underlying signal, or b) the noise has a Poisson (or Renewal) distribution in which the standard deviation is proportional to the square root of the signal strength.
As increasing endeavours are made to artificially simulate the neurological behaviour of the human body, for example in the fields of artificial intelligence using neural networks and prosthetic limbs that are actuated by the patient's own neurological systems, the behaviour of the chosen communication channel in such simulated systems is of an increasing importance. The identification by the current applicant that the current communication channels within the human body follow a proportional noise model compared with a Poisson noise model that has previously been assumed in artificial systems introduces the desire to configure a communications channel to exhibit a noise characteristic substantially the same as that found to be exhibited in natural neurological systems.